# Why am I seeing 'Asset does not exist' in my Publish Notification?

> A link points at an asset the system can't find — usually because the link includes a file extension, or points at a folder rather than its index page.

URL: https://www.hannonhill.com/cascadecms/latest/articles/content-authoring/publishing/asset-does-not-exist.html
category: Content Authoring
article-type: troubleshooting
content-kind: faq
release-availability: all
tags: publishing, errors
updated: 2026-10-06

This message means the asset being published contains a link to another asset the system can't locate. It appears in the Broken Links section of a Publish Notification:

```bash
[Destination: Production Web Site] about/staff/directory
Link: /about/staff/john.html
Reason: Asset does not exist.
```

In this case the *about/staff/directory* page contains a link to */about/staff/john.html*:

```html
<a href="/about/staff/john.html">John Smith</a>
```

which does not exist in the system.

## Drop the file extension

File extensions for page assets aren't added until the final steps of publishing. So while the page asset */about/staff/john* may exist, the link should not include the extension:

```html
<a href="/about/staff/john">John Smith</a>
```

## Link to the index page, not the folder

When linking to a folder, link to its index or default page rather than the folder itself. A link to the */about/contact-us* folder should be written:

```html
<a href="/about/contact-us/index">Contact Us</a>
```

See [Linking](https://www.hannonhill.com/cascadecms/latest/articles/content-authoring/linking.html) for how internal links are resolved.